My gaming machine games - then and now

My first ever gaming machine was the original xbox.This console was first released November 15th 2001 and was one of the most iconic consoles. This console had 4 ports for 4 player local multiplayer/CO-OP the bad thing about this is that there was lots of wire everywhere due to wireless controllers not being available at the time. The main reason that i loved this console was because it created a lot of fun memories with family members and old friends. The thing that i disliked about this console was the portability because you had two main wires for the display and power, controllers which all had wires and was too much of a mess when playing it. The good thing is i didn't have to purchase this at all as it was passed down from a family member because they'd moved onto the xbox 360. with the consoles hardware specs, the harddrive for it could probably only have up to 500MB of storage, the max resolution was around 720p up until the new back compat xbox introduced where they have changed that to 1080 with 60fps.

The first game that had played with this console was midnight club 3 DUB edition. This was a street racing game that had many realistic cars such as a subaru which was based on the first fast and furious. However these games ran at 30fps but at the time it looked like they ran smoothly. This game release on the 11th April 2005 quite near the end of  the original xbox's lifetime. There wasnt relally a campaign to this because it doesn't really require one, most of the time your driving around in freeroam or doing some street races. The reason that I liked this game was because me as well as my cousin played this game for quite a few years and found lots of fun glitches to do before we upgraded to better consoles. One thing that I disliked about this game was the amount of times that it crashed or the xbox didn't recognise the disk. 

The second most played game that loved to bits and still enjoy playing now is the original star wars battlefront 2. This game i've been playing for about 12 years because of how much i enjoyed it, the campaign i think is flawless and the story of the 501st legion made it so much better. there was also multiplayer connection so you could play this online with others as well as locally. The multiplayer games could get up to 32 players which was really enjoyable. Like Midnight club, this game is canon and relates to the real looks of the star wars films. one of the reasons that I still play this game is that I just find it more enjoyable than other games because of it's variety of content.

The current gaming machine that i play is the first xbox one. with this console it has double the frame rate capability so 60fps. it has 8GB DDR3 RAM, 8GB flash memory which the original didn't have and also has an 8 core CPU. The good thing about upgrading consoles is that you will be able to play newer games with better upgrades to them so the graphics would be better and can get up to 4k consoles with a higher resolution making the games look less pixelated. One good thing with this console is that it has a more interactive homepage than the original, there are things like a community page where people share screenshots and gameclips. another good thing is that you cna connect the xbox console to your PC if they're on the same network so you can stream the games on your PC/Laptop. one last thing is the controllers which no longer require a wire but are still a possibilty therefore more portability and less environmental mess.


One of the main triple a games i've been playing recently and enjoy is forza horizon 4. compared with the other racing game i've listed, this game has more cars that the player can choose from, it has a small story to it as well as side stories.I enjoy this game probably because of the visuals that it has, the cars reflection of the sky and other things are almost spot on. one bad thing about buying these newer games is that you first have to install all of the content to the consoles hard drive. for some this could take days because of a slow internet connection but with the original xbox, you place the disk in and you get to play instantly. the reason we now have to install this content is because it allows the console to get access to the files a lot faster therefore making the game run more smoothly.

Overall newer generation consoles are getting better and better however some of the details about the old generations can still be more advantageous than newer ones with certain aspects.

small story on noble six before halo reach

Small story on noble six before Halo Reach

Halo reach: story of noble six

"Things haven't gone according to plan... it's not going to work out."

Those were the last words Ally heard him say before she ran out the door. Her own fiancé turned against her, and now she couldn't do anything to fix it.

She was nothing to him anymore. He was the world to her, but that was washed away by his decision.

She looked out the window, her dog tags in hand. It felt like it happened so long ago. She sighed, her breath reflecting on the glass.

"Ally." A voice said behind her. No one called her that  anymore, not since she joined up. She turned around seeing her commander. "It's six now commander" She replied.

"Stand attention six." He said sternly. She did as she was told.

"there seems to be a situation in the beta quadrant. Follow your team, and finish the job." six nodded, moving her arm into a salute.

"It will be done sir." he saluted in return and she took off to the armoury.

this was the very same enemy she ran into a long time ago. this time she was on a team and was prepared to fight against them, to end them.

she entered the armoury, walking up to the wall full of different sized cartridges.

she took three cartridges and her assault rifle and walked to her room on the other side of the base.

the intercom alert sounded as she got closer to her room. "Spartans, enemy in beta quadrant, search and destroy."

Ally entered her room, walking up to her suit behind the glass case. it felt like it had been a long time since she put it on, but it really wasn't. It had been almost two months since she had seen any action.

she put on her MJOLNIR armour, her helmet in hand and ran out to the motor pool being united with the rest of the team that were already there.



she nodded to them as they boarded the falcon. she looked quietly to herself. she heard a chuckle as someone sat next to her.

"surprised six? or are you just scared?" she turned to the figure seeing one of her teammates. it was four , or his real name, Emile.
He always wanted to pick a fight, especially with her being the newest recruit on Noble Team.
"we'll see who scared when you go up against the covenant without your knife..." she threatened.

An arm cut in front of them. "Knock it off you two, I swear..." said Jun putting on his helmet. " You guys need to work this out." 

"Aw, what's the fun in that?" Ally replied. "We were just making friendly chat..." She said giving Emile a smile. Emile rolling his eyes.

She rolled her eyes too. It was fun to tease him, kind of like she used to with her brother. She frowned at the thought. She looked at her helmet, the war still hadn't changed her, but she changed for the war.

Audio problems in FH4 and ways to resolve them

Errors in music/sound in a game.

Sound and music have been very precise over the past few years for some games like battlefield 1 and their gun sounds. However, small audio problems can still slip out to the public either in Alpha/ Beta previews of the games or maybe the full release. Most games don't have many sound errors of which I have played but they still can occur. they can either be dialogue in games or maybe the theme tune for the game itself, these problems can also occur in films.

One game that I have found an error in audio is Forza horizon 4, yes we obviously can cut them some slack because it has been a few weeks since release but this game has had quite a few problems with its audio as well as all of their previous games relating with the sound similarities in cars to real life. This seems to be quite a large problem for car enthusiasts or perhaps those who have a large passion for cars. The main sound problem for this game is that some cars have just copied the same audio file from a similar sounding car and have changed the bass slightly. This takes away the realistic vibe of the game even though its visuals are extremely stunning, the sound of these cars are as important. Because of the FH4 car sounds  and that some are not realistic at all, this is upsetting some individuals. When this issue is resolved it makes the game seem more symbolic towards what the cars really perform and creates a realsitic atmosphere. 

This is not the only audio problem within the game however, this problem is slightly different. Me as well as others have been experiencing a period of time within the game at which the sound as well as music stutters and replays from about a second before and as of the FH4 audio stuttering , it then makes this game less enjoyable to play and makes you feel less engaged with it.

There is also a third problem with the audio in this game and that is it freezes on the last sound that was played so when drifting and you come out of the drift there is a possibility that you will keep hearing the skidding sound or perhaps when accelerating you can only hear one tone like a buzzing noise. I cannot find a video link for this problem or create a video myself but I have experienced this before as well as some friends.

There was also another problem which concerns the demo for the game. When I load up the game I had realised that there was no sound or music playing at all, just the visuals. this had a lot of people over the internet quite concerned for the game and figured it wasn't fully complete.forza forum audio problem. Because there was no sound it stops the player having the full experience because most racing games are based on the sound of the cars. 

Resolving these issues 

As for the first problem, if I was an audio technician for the company, I would straight away remove the files for the cars that aren't sounding like they should do so that I'd have no reference to those audio files. I would then ask for the car in real life so that we could produce the actual sound for the car. Then we would use the Foley technique to make sure we capture the correct sound for the car and make sure that there will be no background events happening to intervene with the cars audio making it less lifelike. Another way that we could resolve this issue is by taking the previous audio files for the car and changing them to try and make it sound as real as possible so if the pitch is too low then we will increase it. Or we could use the audio files from the previous Forza games and see if they sound correct, if they do then that's what we could use. This has been said from FH4 car sounds  and they are correct with it. 

For our second audio problem, one of the main possible reasons is that the disk for the game may be scratched interfering with the games sound therefore making it stutter. This can be resolved either by cleaning the disk before putting it in the console/PC, having a replacement disk if it has arrived like that or just buying a new one. If this is not the case, then it must either be the game itself or your console/PC disk drive. another solution for this is that you could try adjusting some of the audio settings in the game because occasionally if the settings are set to maximum quality it could slow down the console therefore making it stutter, this also happens with graphics quality.

The third issue with the audio, I haven't actually managed to find any solution to this one, I've looked all in the settings, on the internet but still nothing. However, this could potentially be happening because of the same reasons as when the game stutters. so the disk could be damaged making this occur or changing a certain setting that I haven't tried as of yet.

And finally the fourth and final issue, the problem from which that there was no sound or music playing in the game when loading and playing it has been resolved. Turn 10 Studios had recently released a patch for the game fixing the audio issue almost everyone was having in the demo. If I had to fix this I would probably take the files from the full release of the game, remove the demo audio files and then replace them. if this is not the case then I would otherwise delete the demo file and recreate another.

Overall, Forza Horizon 4's sound and music haven't seem to have gone so well since its release, however they are working on these issues as of now and plan to release a patch for the game in the near future.

Investigating Audio Production and Technology

Sound FX in games are one of the most important aspects in games  because they are used to show the actions of characters, npc's as well as environmental such as rustling of trees or water to try and make the game seem as real as possible. The music in games are also important because it helps the player to explain the situation and what is happening around them. So if there are enemies in the area the music would probably get louder making it more intense or perhaps in a horror game the pitch of the music is higher at certain parts to scare or thrill the player or there's a faint bass showing darkness or emptiness..

When sound is made it has a waveform which is a curve that shows the shape of a wave at any given time, wavelength is the distance between two peaks or dips in a sound wave, amplitude which is the values between lowest and highest amount of vibrations within a period of time. frequency is the amount of times something repeats over a period of time and pitch is how high or low the sound is.
the way we measure sound is by using Hertz (Hz) and decibel levels are at which the lowest and highest points a human can hear so anything between 0 and 140 we can hear but anything over that, we cannot.
finally the sound generator is the object, e.g. loudspeaker, which uses vibrations to create sound. 

Foley.
foley is everyday sound effects that are used in films or games, such as drums that could be used for thunder type effect. there are more basic sounds that can be used like they used for a star wars door opening they used a piece of paper being pulled out of an envelope or keyboard keys for running etc. This shows that almost any sound coming from an object can be turned into something.  

3 games that use sound for information.

The first game that i found that uses music and sound as information is the original mario games, the first level that you load up plays an energetic tune to it, mario world 1 theme tune, and i also found that in the second level it is a cave, the music for this part feels dark and maybe a sense of mystery. the collectibles also use sound for information such as coins, they make a high pitch ding sound to notify the player that they've collected it. the game also has a death them tune to it to tell the player that they've diedsuper mario death sound.

The second game that i chose is halo. This game uses a lot of sound for information such as, when a gun overheates it has a steam or kettle boiling sort of sound to tell the player they've overheated. The games theme song on almost all of the menus on each game is mystical and unique.halo theme. Also when you die in the game it produces a very unique crack sound, and this part of the game is only when you'll hear it.

The third game i chose is destiny. this game has a very similar theme to halo as it is also a game about different worlds and aliens. When your characters shields are depleted then it will make, also like halo, a unique crack sort of sound. these games seem very similar because they are both made by Bungie. It also uses a phase sort of sound when the character teleports in and it also uses different sounds for each rarity of a pickup so common is very simple, rare is medium, legendary is deeper and longer, then exotic makes a loud bass sound.

Timbre.

With timbre there are two types, vocal and instrumental or any type of musical sound and is the general nature of sound itself, otherwise known as tone by most people.

Hello, my name is Joe, i enjoy playing games and seeing how they are produced such as design of characters and code used for it etc. I am creating this blog to share the content i will be producing over the next couple of years during this game design course. I will making weekly updates on the content I'm creating and i will also be making videos showing what I exactly will be doing, these will be uploaded to a Youtube channel. Hopefully this blog pans out well.